Tuesday, January 6, 2009

PF Associate Artistic Director Jonathan Spector spoke to Anne Galjour about her work and her process. Anne is teaching a class with PF's Institute this spring. For more information, visit playwrightsfoundation.org

Jonathan Spector: You work as both a playwright and a writer/performer creating solo work.Does your process as a writer differ widely when you work in differentforms?

Anne Galjour: Yes. Writing plays is a different cut of meat from writing solo work. I do not have the luxury of so many words in playwriting.

JS: Much of your work draw on your Cajun background. What continues to bringyou back to Louisiana as a source of inspiration?

AG: My family. My dad is a prolific storyteller. It’s how he makes sense of the world. I love the way Cajuns speak. My play OKRA is also running at the Bayou Playhouse right now.

JS: You've been on the playwriting faculty at SF State for many years. Howdoes your work as a teacher inform your work as an artist?

AG: I simply do my best to impart principles of dramatic writing and create a relaxed environment so that the poetry of the human voice with its needs, conflicts and stakes can emerge. My motto in class is ‘we fail forward’. This is how I feel about my own writing and performing practice.

JS: What's up next for you?

AG: My latest solo show YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE just had its world premiere at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. We had a very successful New England tour of the show. It was developed at Z Space and directed by Jayne Wenger. Z Space is producing it here in September, 2009. I learned so much from working with Jayne. She and are cooking up a new work together.